July 13, 2009

Apparently Franken didn’t read Victor Navasky’s plea in the July 10 New York Times. Navasky begged Franken to remain funny, despite the responsibilities of his new post. That humorless piece was better than Franken’s performance today.

57 comments:

Franken was not funny in his speech yet his presence is at best a joke and also not funny! Senator Al is the best ACORN can buy, which says damned little about ACORN and its vote sandbagging. Oh well, perhaps he'll gain a conscience and resign at year's end.

I thought Frankin was sometimes funny in the olde days. But I don't think much of him as a person.

As far as being a senator, notwithstanding the sadness that he actually could be elected (only with Obama's coat tails), he seems to be able to assume the role of a windbag senator the same as the rest of them. I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks he can be president someday.

Al Franken fit in perfectly. Whatever the DNA of a Senator is today, he has a complete genome of it. The sad part is how worried he was over fitting in. he IS the essence of today's Democrat super-majority Senator cheerfully sponsoring and passing the hoax of the month.

Come on in, Gene. Let's see how you can defend this piece of ofal. Afterall, your lineage is ofal too. HAHA!!! See that, Gene? It's called humor, something you and that moron Franken lack, you humorless dicks.

This is not a sentiment that is for or against her getting appointed...it's a simple question of logic.

How is it that she's the most qualified person for the job in the last 100 years if her name has never come up before.

Objectively, if she were the most qualified, her name would have come up long before now. She would have been trotted out as the standard against which Alito and Roberts were judged by the left.

Since they weren't (at least in my recollection and quick research), this claim of immense qualification, indeed "supreme" qualification, smells nothing as much as rhetoric; suprise, suprise. Much ado about nothing, which is the way the left in Congress seems to govern. Non-binding resolutions come to mind...

"It's not just the Senate. Look at the best the Republicans could come up with for the Presidential run in 2008."

John McCain won the medal of honor. You should wake up every day and thank God you will never have to do the things he did. He was certainly not the greatest Senator in history, but he did things that people like you and Frankin will never do. To compare him to Fankin is pathetic. People like Frankin wake up every day and get to live in a great country and have never sacrificed one damn thing in return. McCain, whatever his faults, will always be above that group.

Kansas City, I was convinced term limits were a bad idea by the argument that we would end up being ruled by unelected professional staffers. When Steny Hoyer, who is highly regarded here in Maryland, recently laughed at the very idea of anyone reading the entire health care reform bill before voting, I realized we are already being ruled by the unelected professional staffers who draft our laws.

Franken has passion, he has a brain, and as a comedian who has skewered many an elected official, I suspect he will be less of a hypocrite than our average politician. We could have gotten worse.

And his hyperbole in praising Sotomayor is nothing more than the usual courtesies, not worth getting excited about. Although such phrasing did do in Trent Lott....

Is hypocrisy the worst sin a politician can commit? Is it OK to cheat on your wife as long as you have never made a public statement against adultery? Is it OK to leave a young woman for dead in a car underwater as long as you have never said, "I am against letting women drown!"

What if a politician says, "I think smoking is bad for you" and is then discovered to be a smoker. Is he a hypocrite? Or truthful? Can you be a smoker who also believes smoking is bad for you?

Are you saying Franken will just be upfront about the laws he breaks, maybe tax laws (I have no evidence of that - it's just an example)? And then it will be OK because he never said he thought it was bad to cheat on your taxes?

Hyperbole or fact, I can't say, but the enomium to Judge Sotomayer that she is "the most experienced judge to be nominated to the high court in 100 years" is not unique to Al Franken and did not originate with him:

http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/84AAA9E3-30A7-4A7D-B507-1402DB6AD46A/

Also, in this story, Senator Patrick Leahy is also quoted saying the same thing:

In fact, for what it's worth, the White House itself made the statement: "If confirmed for the Supreme Court, Judge Sotomayor would bring more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice in 100 years, and more overall judicial experience than anyone confirmed for the Court in the past 70 years."

See here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/01/sonia-sotomayor-supreme-c_n_194470.html

Is anyone here so knowledgable to assert that the claim hasn't even a whisper of truth to it? In any case, this is hardly a case of Al Franken being unusually nutty. At best, it's accurate, at worst, he's merely echoing the words of others, another tendency all too common among Washington pols of both parties. (Without their pre-scripted talking points, I doubt many Republicans would have a word to say in their monopoly as guests of the "liberally biased"(sic) tv news/chat shows.)

"The most experienced nominee in a hundred years? Is he fucking serious?"

To be fair, I think you're missing a very important point to that "experience." In addition to whatever her actual legal experience is, she's a wise latina. That's like looking at a sword and thinking "That's just a plain old sword," when it is in fact a +4 Sword of Correct Rulings.

John said..."John McCain won the medal of honor. You should wake up every day and thank God you will never have to do the things he did. He was certainly not the greatest Senator in history, but he did things that people like you and Frankin will never do."

As for Al Franken's ability to make people laugh, and based on McCain's campaign and V.P. pick I'm not so sure about that.

There are many who think McCain's and Princess Sarah's team was outright hilarious.

You get to be a mouthy queer and live in peace thanks to the sacrifices of people like John McCain. You should get down on your knees and kiss his feet if you ever saw him. Thanks to people like him, you get to suck cock in peace. That is a pretty big debt I would say.

Wow, Factotum, you sure put a lot of words in my mouth. Why the hostility? Where did I say all would be forgiven as long as no hypocrisy is involved? I feel attacked. Do you attack everyone who tries to find something hopeful, however trivial, to say about a new senator? I was merely musing over how a comedian might be different from the usual senator.

To make your blood boil even more, let me suggest that Franken is a wonk and may actually read the legislation before he casts his votes.

Christy, I did not intend to offend you or put words in your mouth. I took what you said as a starting place for an argument I have had many times with some liberals I know (ie, my husband) who seem to think that hypocrisy is the worst thing a pol can do -- worse than the actual crime/sin/transgression. I have pointed out to him that only someone with standards can be a hypocrite and just because someone has violated his own standards does not invalidate the standards. I did not intend my comment to be fighting words with you! Promise!

Scott, it wasn't so much same day registration as it was "next day just found those ballots in the trunks of my car" rulings. And, "Gee we mislaid those votes for Franken, we BAD" rulings! Those were examples of two of the rulings that won it for Franken.

John, McCain was not awarded the MoH, perhaps a Navy Cross. Regardless, McCain's service was exemplary and beyond reproach. Do not inflate the characteristic of McCain's service, that's not needed nor worthy of him. PS: He was a poor presidential candidate IMHO.

The worst sin is not in violating standards of conduct one has espoused and even believes in; we're all human and prey to weakness and poor judgement. We're all hypocrites. The great sin is in our proud thundering against misteps of conduct in others, casting them from the fold and condemning them for their failings. Presumably, one of the things Christians should take from their faith is the understanding that, to use their terms, we are all sinners and thus we are all owed (and owe to others) compassion and understanding. As we ask for forgiveness for our trespasses, we must forgive those who trespass against us, (or against others, for that matter).

"I could more easily defend Robert Bork as the most qualified and experienced person for the job in the last 100 years."

Well, it all depends on one's criteria, doesn't it? Apparently, those who say of Sotomayor that she brings "more federal judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any justice in 100 years" are using that as their criterion. Does Judge Bork have more federal jucicial experience than Judge Sotomayor? Did he at the time of his nomination? I don't presume to know, but presumably students of such matters can provide an answer. Even if he does not have equivalent or greater federal judicial experience as Judge Sotomayor, perhaps you or others will focus on other criteria to define him as the "most qualified and experienced" judge to have been nominated to the high court. One could also argue, I suppose, that the presumption is that Sotomayor will be the next justice, while Bork, fairly or not, didn't make it through the confirmation process, and that whatever Bork's federal judicial experience relative to Sotomayor's, she may have the most such experience of anyone who actually makes the court.

All these assertions are pro forma anyway and are really about selling the "product" to America. Even if Sotomayor actually has "greater federal judicial experience" than any justice in 100 years, it remains for her to demonstrate through her work on the court whether she was a good or a poor choice, and even that determination will vary according to the differing perceptions and metrics of those who will evaluate her.

To be fair, I think you're missing a very important point to that "experience." In addition to whatever her actual legal experience is, she's a wise latina. That's like looking at a sword and thinking "That's just a plain old sword," when it is in fact a +4 Sword of Correct Rulings.

The illustrious Senator Franken is,after all,an actor. He will read the lines, either provided for him or written by his own hand, with great aplomb. This is the role of a lifetime. He can stretch his craft from comedy to drama and prove himself to the nation. Can you spell President Franken?

SNL goes to congress is the new wave. If only Rosanna Rosanna Danna was still alive.

You bitch about him being nothing more than a comedian, then bitch because he's not "funny" enough.

Is there ANYTHING this crowd doesn't bitch and whine about?

Oh, there you are, Gene. I wondered when you were going to show up with a scintillating defense of the humorless clown. It's always good to know that one humorless clown comes to the defense of another humorless clown. You've got to keep those jokester bonds tight you know. Hey, Gene, did your mom get those flowers I sent her yet?